Disinfecting N95 masks is now a reality

A simple dinner conversation between a husband and wife could potentially have resulted in a game-changing idea for disinfecting and reusing N95 masks.

In March 2020, Laurie and Kevin Hommema had just finished a family dinner with their two daughters at their home in Columbus, Ohio. Kevin is an engineer and wife Laurie is a family physician. During their conversation the couple used their combined knowledge to come up with a system that would allow much needed N95 masks to be decontaminated for reuse.

Their system involves using concentrated hydrogen peroxide vapor inside of a chamber- in this case, a re-purposed shipping container, where the masks are decontaminated after about 2.5 hours.

By running the disinfection container, it was capable of processing as many as 80,000 N95 masks in a single day. The system is so effective, the process can be repeated on the same mask up to 20 times without it degrading.